Wish Upon A Star

Dumbledore's Flight

Ashlyn had a wonderful dream that night. She dreamt that Umbridge got smacked around by all the teachers. McGonagall had wiped her hand with her large handkerchief and then bitch slapped Umbridge and walked away. The Flitwick stood on a pile of books, took one particularly large hardback book and smacked Umbridge with it. Sprout set her venomous tentacula at Umbridge with a war cry. Professor Sinistra beat Umbridge up with a telescope. Trelawney trapped Umbridge in a crystal ball and shook it around vigorously while dancing. Hagrid hammered Umbridge into the ground, clubbing her on the head with his large fists. Snape brought a cauldron in front of her and down it over Umbridge's head. And finally, Dumbledore threw a huge throne on top of Umbridge and sat down, saying, "Ha, you thought bitch,"

Beaming, Ashlyn went to breakfast that morning.

Everyone was looking forward to new divination lessons. Especially Parvati and Lavender.

"I'll bet you wish you hadn't given up Divination now, don't you, Hermione?" asked Parvati, smirking.

Parvati was curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon. 

"Not really," said Hermione indifferently, who was reading the Daily Prophet. "I've never really liked horses." She turned a page of the newspaper, scanning its columns.

"He's not a horse, he's a centaur!" said Lavender, sounding shocked.

"A gorgeous centaur . . ." sighed Parvati.

"Either way, he's still got four legs," said Hermione coolly. "Anyway, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?"

"We are!" Lavender assured her. "We went up to her office to see her, we took her some daffodils — not the honking ones that Sprout's got, nice ones . . ."

"How is she?" asked Harry.

"Not very good, poor thing," said Lavender sympathetically. "She was crying and saying she'd rather leave the castle forever than stay here if Umbridge is still here, and I don't blame her. Umbridge was horrible to her, wasn't she?"

"I've got a feeling Umbridge has only just started being horrible," said Hermione darkly.

"Impossible," said Ron, who was tucking into a large plate of eggs and bacon. "She can't get any worse than she's been already."

"You mark my words, she's going to want revenge on Dumbledore for appointing a new teacher without consulting her," said Hermione, closing the newspaper. "Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze . . ."

The classroom floor had become springily mossy and trees were growing out of it; their leafy branches fanned across the ceiling and windows so that the room was full of slanting shafts of soft, dappled, green light. In the middle of the room, where there were no trees, stood Firenze.

"Harry Potter," he said, holding out a hand when Harry entered.

"Er — hi," said Harry, shaking hands with the centaur.

Ashlyn walked over to a tree stump and sat down on the ground resting her back against it.

"Professor Dumbledore has kindly arranged this classroom for us," said Firenze, when everyone had settled down, "in imitation of my natural habitat. I would have preferred to teach you in the Forbidden Forest, which was — until Monday — my home . . . but this is not possible."

"Please — er — sir —" said Parvati breathlessly, raising her hand, "why not? We've been in there with Hagrid, we're not frightened!"

"It is not a question of your bravery," said Firenze, "but of my position. I can no longer return to the forest. My herd has banished me."